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HOLYOKE – Manley F. Miles has bounced from construction to slinging fast-food, so he felt at home entering the War Memorial building for the first time.

Miles, 42, of Chicopee, said he got job tips at the “New Year New Job Fair” sponsored by the city and CareerPoint on Jan. 19 at the War Memorial, 310 Appleton St.

Manley said in a phone interview the day of the fair that he pocketed a deck of business cards and did as many face-to-face greetings as he could with the dozens of businesses represented at the event.

The fair put him in touch with Premiere Staffing Services, 476 Appleton St., which helps employers fill positions, he said.

“These people bent over backwards to try to reintegrate people” into the workforce, Manley said.

He was doing roofing work for a while, he said, and when the company he was working for stopped operating, he began taking whatever job would bring a paycheck – “fast-food, Burger King, Friendly’s, anything and everything.”

The job fair drew about 500 people who mingled with 25 companies from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Mayor Alex B. Morse said.

Morse’s perspective is unique since he worked as a job developer and career counselor at CareerPoint before winning the Nov. 8 election to become mayor. Helping people get jobs and doing it in a way that brings people downtown are positive effects, he said.

Getting people into jobs involves steps. One step is marketing the city to bring in new businesses, said Morse, who said to do that he will be forming a creative team to devise a new city logo and slogan. Another step is helping existing employers, he said.

“The important job for us is to connect people with the positions that are available,” Morse said.